I had just returned from a friend’s house and was greeted by my Mom at the front door. I immediately went into self-preservation mode as the look on her face meant she was in no mood to be manipulated by her good for nothing son.

I made good grades in school, didn’t get into any trouble and seemed to be well liked by some of my classmates, but apparently still not good enough for Mom by the expression on her face. I briefly wondered what I did this time, from the look on her face it must be earth shattering.

Sis owned a security company doing certain surveillance jobs as requested or needed. Most of the time it was just following someone and making sure they did not get them selves in trouble. Most of the people she was paid to keep track of were fairly high profile, so were instant targets for news media and other individuals who had varied and nefarious reasons to exploit those people.

Quite often I got invited along, two people out wandering along not standing out like an individual would be. In this particular case me being along saved the day.

“So… exactly how many high school fantasies are we fulfilling right now?” Paul asks as I tune my bass guitar, and I can’t help but smirk as I can already guess how the impending argument will go.

“Bit inappropriate to ask about MY high school fantasies, but I’ll let it slide,” Stuart replies, and I sense my opportunity to chip in.

“If it helps, Paul, I’m wondering the same thing,” I say, chuckling at the mock-offended look on my mentor’s face.

“…Okay, yes, every music student dreams of playing in a garage band in an actual garage,” Stuart concedes.

A Hillbilly Funeral 
by
Rebecca Anna Coleman
Part Three of Three

I found my uncle stumbling around the small bathroom of the church. He was drunk as a jude, and the moment he spotted me out of the corner of his beady eyes he stumbled toward me. His eyes were glazed over and his breath reeked of cheap, corn whiskey. When he was mere inches from me, he reached out and placed both of his hands upon my shoulder. 

Two lonely high school students walk parallel paths.  One, impoverished and losing hope, yearns desperately to become their authentic self. The other, wealthy and the victim of unfathomable manipulation, resists changing to something they never wanted to be. Can these two, meeting amidst the clatter and chatter of the school cafeteria, find connection? Can they embrace their fractured selves and each other and then become whole? Or will a duplicitous villainess, in the guise of a loving mother, destroy their fragile hope and leave them living a miserable, incomplete existence?

A Hillbilly Funeral
by
Rebecca Anna Coleman
Part Two of Three

Unable to find a job after flunking out of high school, my Mom had given me several accounts in her cleaning business. All three were nightclubs, the cleaning had to be done in the early morning hours since the club was open late afternoon and evening till 2 A.M.

The job was not hard, me being eighteen allowed me to work at the club because they sold alcohol. Most of Mom’s other employees either too old to work early in the morning or too young to be in the club.

Another fight with my wife, the couch probably where I will spend the night, a fate that has happened more often than I cared for recently. This time, we had just got comfortable watching a chick flick on the T.V. when I reached over to massage her breasts. She was cradled in my arms sitting directly in front of me. It was only logical for me to reach around her to fondle her breasts.

The time had crept up on me, a year earlier my wife and I had an argument about her outrageous salon charges for maintaining her hair style and appearance. Looking back the charges were not that excessive, but I was jealous of anything that took any funds from our joint bank account, money I wanted to spend on my desire to succeed at my job.

I was dropping off my wife at her beauty salon, a sudden need to use the bathroom causing me to go in with her, so I could use their facilities. It was sudden, like one minute everything was fine, the next I had to go real bad. It felt like I was leaking a little as I walked towards the restroom, trying to hold my legs together to keep from letting go. I paused at the door, both gender symbols displayed on the same door.

As I entered the house Linda was still at her sewing machine working on another dress design. I was just getting home from work, two hours later than normal. I knew better than to bother her right now, her hobby means a lot to her. Especially since she now has somebody interested in her dress designs.

“Ah- shit, sorry…” Luke mumbled as he entered the college’s toilet block to find his twin standing at a urinal fastening his zipper.

“S’okay,” Lucas mumbled, not looking at Luke as the young trans man limped toward one of the cubicles. Both twins grimaced as the encounter ended, not least because it was the most words they’d exchanged with each other for weeks.

I had taken the advice of a co-worker and made an appointment at a new salon in town for a haircut. My old male barber had retired, looking for other barbers in the yellow pages proved to be an effort in futility.

Realistically, I don’t think old time barbers even exist anymore. I had almost decided to settle on one of the chains for their special, even at $ 12.88 the price seemed ridiculous when I used to get a haircut for seven dollars at my old barbers. I know, I sound like a born cheap stake.

I was looking through the credit card bills for the last month. Neither my wife nor I are hurting for money, both having successful careers that we have been able to walk away from in the last few years.

Due to being high profile in the community we both are expected to attend quite a few social and charitable functions every month. Mackenzie is more tolerant of these affairs than I am. Often I conveniently find something that has to be done at home, an excuse to avoid going to them.

Halloween was fast approaching and we still did not have suitable costumes for the three parties we had been invited to. Ginger had tried all the costume rental places in town, several costumes that might work for her but absolutely nothing that would fit me and go along with her costume.

I offered to stay at home this year, Halloween not my favorite holiday, the parties so lame and boring. Unfortunately Ginger did not see it that way.